Managment Change and Creativity in Organizations - Essay Example

affiliation taught by . s In recent years, creativity has gained its justified recognition as on of the most critical and defining aspects within an organizations, which pursuit creating lasting value in terms of chameleonic environment. Logically, this issue is being actively discussed on pages of Wall Street Journal, Business Week, Management Today, providing detailed guidance on organizational creativity. Numerous publications, targeted at practitioners disclose the variety of levers that can impede the creativity (sometimes inadvertently), or in contrast – inspire it (Amabile, 2008). The nature of this complex phenomenon is elusive, thus vesting the scientific approach with the linear characteristics. The development of creativity research is taking various forms and seems to be growing into different directions, similarly to the buds on a branchy tree; the sprouting of the new sprigs is likely to bear underlying disposition to be considered (Anderson, 2015). Therefore despite being based on the common theoretical background, the research studies do not reflect the unified paradigm. The ambiguous and ephemeral essence of creativity stirs the interest towards the quintessence that is driven and drives the evolution (Mootee, 2015). Basically, the creativity is the engine of human aspiration. The concept forms a strong nexus with the innovation, which is the origin of the unexpected value, and it can hardly be underestimated in the context of the overall corporate performance. Without exaggeration, the new era has been born, and nowadays its prevalence dictates the new rules, where the major task is to transform the social and intellectual capital into fresh and necessary ideas (Scott, 2015). The abruptness of the knowledge economies shift has provoked the enormous curiosity towards creativity-innovation duet on open spaces of the workplace (Amabile, 2008). Today, innovation is the main prerequisite for the corporate survival, frequently acting as the key to a variety of significant challenges on a worldwide scale, implying sustainability and global warming. However, the practice indicates that the present-day condition is too immature to be considered a solid theory of corporate creativity. The uncountable systems and agents involved in the knowledge flow to generate the avenues for the budding research, which is to play a central role in the emergence of the creativity theory (Bolshaw, 2015). The particular working environment requires appropriate attitude to stimulate innovation and creativity; the peculiarities of the sector or industry define the features of the creative environment, engendering diversified variations. Enabling creativity is the entangled and sophisticated process for the management of any company; a multitude of dimensions is to be taken into account. The observations revealed the existence of a number of factors, improving the effectiveness of working ecosystem (Brady, 2015). The are presented in the following figure: Figure 1. Factors, enhancing working ecosystem effectiveness Thus, in order to build the premises to creativity, management is obliged to provide the individual worker and the team with the favourable environment, which aims at stimulation and inspiration. However, the factors mentioned above represent the external dimension, which influences the environment from the outside. In this respect, it is essential to proceed to the structure and disclose the constituents of the healthy working environment (Bessant, 2009). Basically, the ecosystem is made up of elements, which are all important, each of them to a greater or lesser extent. The structure looks as follows: Figure 2. Working ecosystem structure As it can be seen from the picture above, the ecosystem can be perceived as the molecule; each atom has its direct role and application. The bonds between the participating atoms imply interdependence; the healthy ecosystem is interested in the complementary function of each constituent as the springboard for the future innovative environment. The availability of the elements guarantees the firm support framework. The ecosystem as a complex mechanism with its compound structure, functions and processes requires appropriate management, which is the core force, encouraging creativity. Analysing leadership, organizational structure and corporate culture more thoroughly, the key aspects, facilitating creativity come out onto the surface: First and foremost, leadership style for the creativity to thrive is ideally participative, non-authoritarian and democratic (Bolshaw, 2015). Steve Jobs is a perfect example to prove this hypothesis; he managed to establish healthy communication within Apple across the levels in accordance with his belief, that brilliant ideas can come from anywhere. In the long run, the job is to be regarded by the researcher as discrete and autonomous at the same time. As for the organizational structure, a hierarchical structure has a rather chilling effect, which is unacceptable for the innovative space (Dawes, 2015). Considering corporate culture, it is important to admit, that creativity and innovation are always about the risk-taking, and this is the area, where the culture is to provide the appropriate support, encouraging out-of-the-box thinking and being constantly exposed to new ideas. Apart from the self-evident attributes, such as profound knowledge and skills, the leader as the master of the creative working ecosystem is a pattern of flexibility; the conventional approach cuts across the concept of creativity, which implies the departure from the triviality (Randall, 2005). However, the adoption of this mechanism is an uneasy task to be accomplished; for many businesses the approval of these ideas remains superficial, and the corporate culture may not reflect the desired objectives. Moreover, the development cycle of a corporation is likely to affect the new idea acceptance or dismissal; the brilliant idea offered at the wrong time results in zero value (Parjanen, 2015). Compressing the vast and complex area to basic principles, the management outlines several major drivers, that are assumed to be the spine of creative ecosystem: Corporate support; Adequate leadership style; A clear idea of required environment, tools and skills. The creativity itself is composite phenomena, which is not limited by the creative-thinking skills; motivation, as well as the expertise, is equally important (Burkus, 2015). The creativity structure is reflected in the figure below: Figure 3. Creativity structure In fact, the management is empowered to have the effect on the first two elements, which is considerably resource-intensive in terms of time and cost. Instead, the management should concentrate on employees intrinsic motivation (Mootee, 2015). In pursuit of creativity and innovation sufficient management, the five levers are to be applied: – stimulation of personnel minds by means of challenges amount; – hassle minimizing through providing the processes with a certain freedom degree; – work groups design; – provided incentives and encouragement, containing recognition and rewards; – organizational support nature. The true innovation can be born provided the right people got in one room to work together, similarly to a jazz improvisation. Basically, in order to perform a jam session, people have to be proficient players; the magic of creativity happens when they get together and play. Chandler McDonald, management professor states, that the territorial variable in terms of creativity and innovation is somewhat overrated (Lehrer, 2012). In case the innovation has got the nation, it is to be viewed as virtual due to the fact, that the cooperations are likely to be practised online. However, this idea can be argued, as probably Silicon Valley, for instance, does seem to have basic building blocks, facilitating the entrepreneurship spirit (Steenbarger, 2015). There have been a lot of debates concerning the role of educational policies in creative thinking boosting (Amabile, 2008). The dominant majority of management professors incline in zero-role favour; in fact, the present-day testing in the US and UK schools causes great concern. Unintentionally, the educational systems are aimed at the correct answers, rather than creative thinking (Anderson, 2015). The prominent figures of the innovative world were famous rebels, totally inconsistent with the tertiary programmes – Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Richard Branson to name a few. According to London Business School professor, John Mullins, good entrepreneurs go against the rules. Within the circumstances of the technological and scientific boom, the emergence of 3D printers, in particular, the power axis balance between the west and east may be reconsidered due to immense scope being offered. Technology is permanently metamorphosing the innovation concept at its core, creating prerequisites for the corporations to adopt fresh ideas at an unbelievable rate (Chen, 2009). Technology has provided the chance to establish a connection with the customers and stay aware of their wants, needs and behaviour; this has a positive effect on the efficiency and cost. Customers have never been more involved into the creative process than they are nowadays; their likes and comments present a significant value for the decision-making processes of the company (Dijk, 2015). As a result, in the context of competitive markets, the corporations are capable of presenting the product or service, carefully tailored in accordance with actual needs. The new capabilities have an enormous impact on the world’s leading companies, specifically on the manner of business conduct, developing new strategies and boosting R&D processes (Lehrer, 2015). Taking into account the experience of Google company, the search experiments rates range from 50 to 250, taken at any random time. For instance, Google asked the selected customers to express the preference towards the search results number to be displayed (Dijk, 2015). The customers demanded more. Thus, Google company executed the experiment which managed to triple the number to 30, consequently, the outcomes revealed the traffic decline. Practically, the evolution has provoked the shift of gravity centre, and today a number of traditional practices are characterized with the reduced economic sense within the environment where experimentation is rapid and sufficient. Present day R&D efforts are based on the considerations of the technicians in terms of importance; these considerations are deprived of the customer attention. Corporation engaged in mobile phone manufacturing used to have a common reputation of feature accumulation aimed at adding complexity and cost rather than value. The independent surveys indicate, that the corporate leaders tend to apply a variety of methods and strategies in pursuit of creativity spark. Over 500 executives working at Fortune and Ma&Pa shops were interviewed in order to acquire the most accurate and relevant data. The outcomes revealed, that creativity promotion is not as ubiquitous as it seemed (Boyd, 2015). The team education and the experience, creative individuals, the salary and the company’s size have nothing to do with the overall creativity of the company (Syrett, 2002). Practically, it is leadership, playing the crucial role and is responsible for the creative and innovative environment. It is worth mentioning, that creative environment cannot be planted; it is to be carefully cultivated by a powerful leader (Boyd, 2015). For this purpose, the person at the head of the creative company is required to have certain abilities: A leader must listen. The process of listening is to be distinguished from hearing, as listening implies establishing eye contact and search for the meaning (Murray, 2015). The process goes far beyond discovering the hidden senses, unseen before. A leader must be empathetic. This issue seems to be one of the biggest problems of contemporary management, spreading to the other spheres as well (George, 2015). For the empathizing leader, it is essential to look for the truth in the interlocutor’s words. Explosive creativity can be boosted by this dynamic focus shift. Establishing trustful relationship is a considerably uneasy task, as a person is very hard to be deceived (Eccleston, 2012). In practice, empathizing and listening are worth nothing in case of mutual mistrust. Sometimes, the new ideas are clear and transparent to the innovator, but nobody else (that is the defining trait of the true innovator – to see what the others didn’t). Thus, any innovation reaching the surface is usually subject to severe probation through the prism of other perceptions. Therefore, trust is considered the conclusive stage of the creative operation. The leadership facets mentioned above can be united under acronym LET (Mootee, 2015). In case the leader shows the availability of these three attributes, the working team will work on the verge of creative possibilities. Basically, the teams managed in accordance with the LET principle tend to exhibit better and transient adaptation. However, the practice is full of cases, where the corporate leader is missing an important issue. As the matter of fact, the nature of creativity is characterized with duality, and two different types are to be considered. The first type is ‘conceptual’ creativity, which is evident to the society. The second type of creativity is hard to be spotted; this type is deemed as the much more dramatic variation of creativity, which is featured by gradualness and deprived of the eureka factor (Tidd, 2001). Regardless of the striking differences, the both types are equally important. Paul Cezanne and Virginia Woolf can be regarded as the illustration to the ‘empirical’ creativity, which demands time resources to appear and flourish (Abramson, 2002). The creative process is the flow, free from constraints and prejudice. It is practically impossible to find out who is better equipped to solve the problem – experimentalist or conceptualist. The sole theory is making the discipline sterile; there is a great demand in the empiricists to accumulate fresh observations (Anderson, 2015). Sometimes the empiricist is required to outline the fact, that the evidence and theory do not fit each other. Thus working with the experimentalists is always perceived as a professional risk, as it takes the time to discover their creative results (Boyd, 2015). The phenomena of creativity would hardly ever be completely studied; the ephemeral constituent plays a significant role, which is nothing more but concurrence – the right time and the right place. In the context of a corporation, the creativity and innovation can be cultivated in accordance with the derived formula; companies such as Apple and Google have not only justified the formula relevance but also have emphasized the enormous role played by the leader. References Abramson, M. and Littman, I. (2002). Innovation. Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield. Amabile, T. (2008). Creativity and the Role of the Leader. [online] Harvard Business Review. Available at: https://hbr.org/2008/10/creativity-and-the-role-of-the-leader [Accessed 25 Nov. 2015]. Anderson, A. (2015). The Dos And Donts Of Creativity. [online] Forbes.com. 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